Companies Must Defend Digital Rights in the COVID-19 Era

In the Op-Ed “Companies Must Defend Digital Rights in the COVID-19 Era,” published by Project Syndicate on June 4, 2020, GNI Independent Board Chair, Mark Stephens CBE outlines some valuable lessons from the most recent GNI assessments on how to navigate evolving government pressures on technology companies. He reflects on how companies can employ due diligence to identify censorship and surveillance risks and avert or mitigate them and mentions GNI members’ efforts, including Nokia’s process for evaluating equipment sales and Microsoft’s inclusion of lawyers in its business groups to support it on protecting users’ rights exemplify this approach. The Op-Ed is also available in Chinese, Indonesian, Russian, and Spanish and was published in the Bangkok Post, Enanyang (in Chinese), EcoFin (in Czech) Finanz und Wirtschaft (in German), Journal de Negocios (in Portuguese), The Gulf Times, New Europe, and 24 World News.